Lois Chiles Models a Mid-’70s Elsa Peretti Pendant

Elsa Peretti managed to capture time in a bottle, thanks to her now-ubiquitous pendants of the same shape. During a trip to Portofino, Italy, in the 1960s, she came across women carrying gardenias in their hands. It was her desire to find a way to preserve the life of those fragrant flowers—if only in her mind—that inspired this fluid design. Known for making jewelry in organic shapes and her use of precious metals, Peretti created this particular Bottle necklace out of onyx and pearl and had it modeled by actress Lois Chiles in a Halston dress. (A former fashion model herself, Peretti often collaborated with her dear friend Halston.) The photo dates from 1974—the year Peretti forged her most essential relationship: with Tiffany & Co. By the 1980s, the collections expanded to include crystal, china, and silver home goods. But as recently as last year, she debuted a line of Bottle pendants featuring hand-carved stoppers in gemstones such as lapis, turquoise, and black jade. “For me,” Peretti has said, “good form and good line are timeless.”